


Won't Last Forever (It's kind of Sad)

by rivers_bend



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-28
Updated: 2010-02-28
Packaged: 2017-10-07 15:19:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rivers_bend/pseuds/rivers_bend
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Sam Winchester sees the ocean.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Won't Last Forever (It's kind of Sad)

The first time Sam Winchester sees an ocean he thinks it's Lake Michigan. He's four and a half and they're in New Jersey and Dean makes Dad pull over and let them walk on the beach. Their feet get cold and sandy but Dean cleans them off with his socks, even checking between Sam's little toes, and then they all three sit up front with the heater on full blast and go get grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate milk at a diner.   
~~~  
The second time Sam sees an ocean, he thinks it's the first time. He's nine and they're in Florida, and technically it's the Gulf of Mexico. When he complains to Dean that the first time he sees an ocean it really should be an _Ocean_, Dean says, "What about the Atlantic?"

Sam remembers the day, once Dean reminds him, and tries to alter the memory so it fits the new facts he has. But he still remembers it as a lake.

The Gulf of Mexico is way better than New Jersey or Michigan, since it's warm and they can body surf and Dad lets them get popsicles from the ice cream truck in the parking lot. Sam's turns his tongue red, and Dean's turns his tongue blue, but then they swap half way through so in the end, both their tongues are purple.   
~~~  
The third time Sam sees an ocean he's sixteen and reading Wuthering Heights for English, and the temptation is strong to jump off the rocks into the sea crashing below singing Kate Bush's song at the top of his lungs, just to revel in the tragic angst of it all. They're in Maine, dealing with a haunted light house—a Thanksgiving-week sojourn up from where Dad's settled them in Pennsylvania for the semester.

Dean catches him flirting with the cliff-edge and hauls him backwards with both arms around Sam's waist. He doesn't let go until Sam says, "I wasn't really going to jump, you know." Sam knows he won't and he makes Dean wait to hear the words, and only feels a little guilty.   
~~~  
The fourth time Sam sees an ocean is the first time he sees the Pacific. His new girlfriend Jess is horrified that he's never seen a tide pool and they drive over the hill so she can show him the starfish and hermit crabs and purple-and-green sea anemones. While she's trying to explain the difference between a limpet and a barnacle, he kisses her, tangling his fingers in her hair, and they nearly drown in a crashing wave.

Once they've checked to make sure the other one is okay, she laughs and chides him, but at least it stops her talking about sea life. They climb the cliff and dry off with towels from Jess' trunk and sit wrapped in blankets on a picnic bench to watch the sunset. On the way back to school Sam composes a postcard to his brother that says, _Dear Dean. The Pacific Ocean is the definition of irony. Don't listen to Alanis Morissette. Love, Sam,_ and figures it's just as well he doesn't know where to send it, because Dean would surely think college had made him crazy.   
~~~  
The fifth time Sam sees the ocean, he's alone. It's the anniversary of his mother's death, and he hasn't seen his brother or his father in over a year, he and Jess had a fight, his roommate this year is a _complete_ ass, and he wishes he'd never come to Stanford. It's two am; the moon is almost full and it makes the water look like teeth where it rushes over the rocks. There are great whites out there, he knows—a surfer was attacked at this very beach—and the undertow is treacherous. The rocks are slippery and hard and capable of flaying the skin from your bones when the tide is right. So many dangers, right there in front of him, and that's before you even get to the possibility of ghost ships and water nymphs and sea witches and god knows what else Dad might have carefully noted in his journal.

The sand is cold between his toes and there is no one there to wipe his feet. The parking lot is empty save for his roommate's car that he hotwired to get here. If he goes too close to the edge, no one will pull him back. He can't even think of a witty post card for the occasion.

The fifth time Sam sees an ocean, he decides they're overrated.


End file.
